1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for a vehicle having an engine and a manual transmission, for indicating that the vehicle, including its engine, is operating in a fuel economy range.
2. Description of Background Information
For vehicles having a manual transmission, various techniques for indicating an appropriate gear position have been proposed so as to promote fuel savings. For instance, Japanese patent application laid open No. 55-31669 discloses a technique in which the fuel economy range of the vehicle operation is derived as a state where both an up-shifting operation and a down-shifting operation are not required. When such a state is detected, an indication device such as an indication lamp is driven to show that the vehicle is operating in a fuel economy range.
However, in the case of this type of conventional technique, there has been a problem that the indication of the fuel economy range may sometimes become inappropriate. More specifically, the vehicle operation may become inappropriate, for example, due to a deterioration of the driveability even though it is indicated that the vehicle is operating in the fuel economy range. This is because the fuel economy range is simply derived as a state where both the up-shifting operation and the down-shifting operation are not required. Consequently, it is very likely that a driver may keep on driving the vehicle in a manner according to the indication of the fuel economy range in the indication device even though such manner of driving is not appropriate.